Sunday, March 05, 2017

Day 1: Mumbai to San Francisco on the Emirates A380

After more than a decade, I am back in the US, a short one week trip. My last trip in Oct got cancelled after my Air India flight from Pune to Delhi developed a snag just before take off, so I was wiser this time, and booked on the Emirates A380 from Mumbai to SFO through Dubai. If there is any problem, there are much better chances of getting accommodated on some other flight, instead of being offered to be bused off to Mumbai!

The aircraft is huge, and no matter how many times you see it, you cant help but wonder how this thing even gets its ass up in the air!

The flight to Dubai was short and sweet, although at the unearthly hour of 4 am, with breakfast served just as I was about to get some shut eye. So I gave up trying to sleep and caught up with A Street Cat Named Bob - in hindsight, not a great decision, because it made me miss dear Whiskey a lot and completely changed my mood!

Even though Emirates has a dedicated terminal in Dubai, and a spanking new one at this, our aircraft couldn't get an aerobridge bay, and taxied for almost 15-20 min after landing to finally find a place to stop, and the bus took another 30 min to get to the terminal! Reminded me of Paris CDG a decade back, when it was quite normal to be driving around the tarmac for 45-60 mins to get around!

A short break and some intense security checks later (I was so sure they'd find some explosive traces on me!), we boarded the next A380 onwards to SFO, on an unbearably long 16 hour flight. I did catch up a couple of movies, and some reading, but OMG, this is one bad flight. Especially since it's on your day time, and then reaches in the early afternoon, and really messes up your body clock and sleep big time.

Interestingly, remember, the shortest path between Dubai and SFO doesnt involve going due West, but instead, it's up North and then down South :) Check this!

Thankfully, time always passes by, and we landed half an hour before schedule, after a relatively uneventful journey. Immigration took 5 min, baggage took another 20, and by 2 pm, I was checked into the famous Hotel Vertigo, and crashed into the bed.